Farmers in the Zone 6B area are still waiting for compensation payment from the government just months after President Mokgweetsi Masisi stated that government will use P2 million to compensate all farmers whose cattle are earmarked for slaughter as part of the foot and mouth (FMD) eradication exercise.
Zone 6b concerned Farmers Association mouthpiece Pius Malikongwa said that even though some farmers have already been paid their dues, there are still more farmers that still need to be paid.
“Some have already been paid while some are in line to be paid their P3000 from the Ministry of Agriculture, but we remain hopeful that it will be done soon,” he said.
Malikongwa added that farmers also await their payments from the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) after slaughtering 7 564 of their cattle. He indicated that it is difficult at this point to determine when all the pending dues will be paid to all farmers in the area as the government is still undertaking a depopulation exercise to ensure that the area is cleared of all animals before restocking.
“At this point, we remain grateful that the world organisation for animal health has indicated that this area is now free from foot and mouth disease,” stated Malikongwa. He said he is restricted to speak to the number of farmers who have since been paid as the information remains sketchy.
The Association mouthpiece said there is no need to engage in a blame game adding that the government has done its part but it is now upon farmers to take a fair share of accountability.
“It may be painful that we lost a great number of cattle but the exercise was done to ensure that the area becomes a green zone again. I want to believe that farmers have learned something from this because we cannot allow such kind of outbreaks to always crop out and disturb our farming,” said Malikongwa.
He cited that once the depopulation exercise has been completed they will await a green zone certification adding that they hope that they will sell their cattle to the European Union markets.
“I want to believe that all farmers want to sell to lucrative markets and they can only achieve that if we work together by ensuring that we do not allow foot and mouth outbreaks in the area and I am also glad that they know what needs to be done to sell to such markets,” stated Malikongwa.
Meanwhile, BMC Livestock Procurement Executive Manager Kenneth Makubate stated that they are working closely to process payments for farmers whose cattle were taken for slaughter at the Maun plant.
He said the slaughtering was only completed recently.
“We are working on paying the Zone 6B farmers because we recently completed the slaughter exercise which was undertaken at the Maun plant, so I can assure you that farmers will soon be paid,” he said.
Makubate stated that the meat from the slaughtered cattle will follow due protocols and processes of selling the meat, adding that most will be sold locally.
“The meat will be deboned and brought to the Southern part of the country and the rest of the country, while other meat will be made stew and sold to public schools,” added Makubate.
He indicated that the depopulation process was once off adding that they have slaughtered all the animals in the Zone 6b area.
